Other kinds of dreams

It's 6:52 am and I've been awake for an hour. I slept horribly last night on account of a) the caffeine and sugar I ingested at 10 pm last night and b) some weird-ass dreams.

Picture a pool full of ramen with a dead chef floating in it. The man is wearing a red wet-suit and goggles, Ramen is wrapped around his neck. The scene suggests that the ramen has to be harvested and grows in formations similar to large kelp-beds. In this dream I am both a customer and the ramen monster. As the customer, I watch as my dining partner questions the waitress (who I'm pretty sure is this Turkish girl in my Italian classes--she had awesome butt-length curly black hair) on the pink, fishy-smelling broth. Though I say nothing, it is clear that neither I, nor my dining partner, (unknown character, male) is interested in her food--I believe mine gurgles at me.

Then, as though by way of explanation, my dream pans to the dead chef seen from underwater. My POV has now switched to that of the Ramen monster. I have obviously attacked the chef. The waitress enters the kitchen/ramen pool room and talks to some kitchen minion. I think she's stoked the chef has been strangled by the ramen but nervous about "what lies beneath." Now I'm looking up at her from the bottom of the 15 ft deepish tank. Her head waves into view as she looks apprehensively down into the depths of the ramen pool. At this point, my creepy-ass self zooms up from the bottom of the pool grabs her hands. She screams and I wake up.

Weird.

Welcome to The Sliv

Welcome to The Sliv: A Blog About Food in Charlottesville.

So, What's a "sliv?" A sliv is what my grandfather is referring to when he, ever so reliably, asks for a second helping of cake or pie at family dinners. This can be endearing and it can also be annoying ("Why did you ask for a small piece to begin with?!?!?") but, irritation aside, the sliv will always remind me of the spirit of communal food preparation and shared experiences with loved ones. So, I chose to call this blog "The Sliv" for a couple of reasons. The first pays homage to the spirit of occasional overindulgence in the things we love--such as a good slice of cake--and the second has to do with my mission for this blog. I want to create a forum where people talk about why its awesome to eat together, what they eat that makes it awesome, and how others might attempt to recreate the magic. Really, I just want to share my love for food--to promote a belief in the power of food and provide a glimpse (a sliver if you will) of the bountiful and sensational opportunities for community dining in Charlottesville.

In the future, I hope to compile lists of community friendly dining experiences, recipes, and ideas for awesome ways to share, buy, and make food. I hope that many a guest writer will contribute his or her delicious, disastrous, luscious and smell-rific shared dining experiences with us!

I'm on my way to a pot-luck dinner. I'll be sure to share what I made with you. Now then, GO EAT people.